Frontiers Saga 12: Rise of the Alliance (18 page)

“But we are just a small island of farmers and fisherman,” the mayor objected. “We cannot provide such…”

“These men, and the reinforcements that will soon be joining them, are tasked with the job of bringing order back from the chaos that the world is experiencing in the wake of the Jung attacks. Without order, the Earth’s recovery will take considerably longer. In fact, without order, the Earth may never recover.”

The mayor looked at Jessica again as he contemplated her words. “So, we are replacing one dictator with another.”

“I know that it looks that way, sir, and maybe we are, but it’s only temporary, until the governments of our world can get back on their feet and maintain order on their own.”

“History is full of such promises,” the mayor told her, “and they are almost always broken.”

Jessica looked at the floor for a moment, searching for a different angle with which to convince Mayor Borges to cooperate. “How long has it been since you have received any goods from the mainland?”

“Several months, at least,” the mayor admitted. “Since the Jung were first driven away, I think. Maybe a few ships since then.”

“How are you doing on basic supplies? Things like medicines, equipment, fuels… You know, the stuff you use day in and day out?”

“Most things have been rationed, including water.”

“You have a desalination plant, don’t you?”

“Yes, but we try not to run it any more than necessary, for fear that it will break down, and then we will have nothing. We can barely even water our crops. If it were not for the sea, we would starve.”

“Well, the Ghatazhak will change all of that,” Jessica promised. “Our people will keep your desalination plant working. We will provide medicines, supplies, equipment… Well, maybe not a lot of medicine. I mean, we’re pretty short ourselves, and let’s face it, those guys almost never get sick. But, they need food. Heck, they eat four times as much as the average person, so they need lots of food.”

“They will buy our crops?”

“Well, no. They don’t have any money. None of us do, really. But you can help each other. The Ghatazhak will have the support of the Aurora, the Celestia, and the rest of the Alliance. Your lives will be vastly improved by their presence on your island.”

“And if the Jung return?” the mayor asked. “We shall be directly targeted.”

“If the Jung return, they won’t bother with targets,” Jessica admitted. “They’ll probably just wipe out everyone from orbit and start over.”

The mayor sighed as he looked about the room. “How much of the island will they need?” he finally asked.

“It was not necessary to negotiate with the locals,” Lieutenant Telles said as they walked down the steps of the city services building to the street below. “We could have simply started our operations, and there would have been little they could have done to stop us.”

“This way, they won’t even try to stop you,” Jessica argued. “Hell, they’ll even help feed you.”

“They would have fed us either way.”

“Well, this way they won’t pee on the crops before you take them. Besides, everyone on this little island probably knows each other. If a Jung spy were to try to infiltrate their ranks, they’d spot him.”

“Assuming that spy has not already been among them for decades.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

Lieutenant Telles looked at her, managing the slightest of smiles as he tapped the comm control on the side of his helmet. “This is Telles, ready for pickup.”

“
Copy that. Be there in three,
” the shuttle’s copilot answered.

“Better sugar than vinegar,” Jessica said.

Telles looked at her again.

“By the way,” she continued, “we need to work on your smile.”

* * *

“The platform just went to FTL,” Loki announced from the rear of Falcon One’s cockpit.

“Finally,” Josh exclaimed. “Same course?”

“Yup. Still halfway between Mu and Eta.”

“At least now we can go home,” Josh said, straightening up in his seat and switching his main display
to flight mode.

“Hold on.”

“What? Why?”

Loki stared at his sensors.

“What’s going on?” Josh asked as he switched his primary display back to the sensors.

“The battleship… It’s moving.”

“I thought it was dead… As in
not
moving.”

“Main propulsion was down, as was power generation.”

“Well, if it’s moving then it must have power again.”

“It does,” Loki agreed. “In fact, one of its antimatter reactors has just come back online.”

“If main propulsion is down, then all that’s left is maneuvering. Where can they go with that?” Josh wondered. “Hell, they can’t even break orbit…”

“They’re not,” Loki interrupted. “They’re slowing down. They’re dropping out of orbit… Toward Kent.”

“What?”

“Their reactor’s power output is increasing.”

“There must be at least a skeleton crew on board.”

“They’re really starting to slow down now. They’re falling to the surface.”

“What the hell? That thing can’t land, right?”

“No, it can’t,” Loki assured him. “I don’t understand…” Loki stopped mid-sentence as the readings on his sensor display suddenly rocketed. “What the hell?”

“Oh, my God,” Josh declared. “Was that…”

Loki was speechless for a moment, his eyes fixed on his sensor display. “I think it was.”

Josh’s eyes were also fixed on his sensor display. “Loki? Where’s Kent?”

“It’s… It’s gone.”

“It can’t be gone, Loki. It’s a moon… A damn big moon at that!”

“All I’m showing is debris, Josh,” Loki insisted. “Lots and lots of debris, as well as a full spectrum discharge from a matter-antimatter event.”

“They drove their ship into a moon and set off their antimatter reactors?” Josh couldn’t believe what he was saying. “No way.”

“That’s what it looks like.”

“Who does that?” Josh exclaimed. “How many people were on that moon?”

“Several million, at least.” Loki still couldn’t believe what had just happened. “Fuck, Josh… They just scuttled their ship, and took out an entire civilization with it.”

“We have to get back and report this, Loki.”

“Yeah, right,” Loki agreed, snapping out of his stupor. “Plotting a jump sequence back to Sol.”

Josh switched his main display back to flight mode, and started powering up the Falcon’s flight systems. “I’m starting to think our enlistment might not have been such a great idea after all, Loki.”

* * *

“Our overall propellant storage capacity has been reduced by twenty percent,” Commander Willard reported, “however, based on our usage patterns, I don’t expect it to be of significance.”

“We can always pump some over from the Celestia when she returns from Tanna,” Nathan told him as he continued to
study the reports on his desktop view screen. “She can top off again on her next trip back.”

“How many runs will she need to make?” the XO wondered.

“As many as it takes,” Nathan said. “They can make most of their repairs en route, and the Earth needs the relief aid that Tanna is providing.”

“Maybe we both should be making relief runs?”

“Until the Ghatazhak are reinforced, have a base operating on the surface, and have a few combat jumpers, one of us needs to stay in orbit as much as possible.”

“It’s not like we can do anything to keep the peace on the surface from orbit,” Commander Willard said.

“It’s a psychological thing,” Nathan explained, “at least that’s what President Scott believes.”

“How’s your father doing?”

“Tired, stressed, overworked; just like everyone else I suppose.”

“I don’t see how he can deal with the chaos as well as he seems to.”

“He takes it one crisis at a time,” Nathan mumbled as he studied the reports again. “Always has.”

Commander Willard turned slightly in his chair to point at the ship’s schematics currently displayed on the large view screen on the forward bulkhead of the captain’s ready room. “Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy thinks he can permanently seal off the middle baffle in the damaged propellant tank, then remove the damaged forward half and use parts of it for hull repairs.”

“How hard will it be to pull those sections out?”

“He says it can be done without a shipyard. It’s not a proper repair, but it will give us back that depressurized section again. That will make internal repairs easier in that area.”

Nathan looked at the schematics for a moment. “What percentage of our total propellant did we use in the Centauri engagement?” he wondered.

The XO tapped some buttons on his data pad, then turned back to his captain. “Less than twenty percent.”

“And in the original liberation of Earth?”

“Thirty-seven percent,” the commander answered after tapping a few more buttons. “However, we were operating at higher speeds during those battles. To be honest, Captain, we’ve not used more than half of our total propellant in a single engagement since we first liberated Tanna.”

“Which includes several trips between Earth and Tanna, all of which were jumped at less than a quarter light, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Maybe we don’t even need to carry so much propellant.” Nathan suggested. “After all, this ship was originally designed to travel using linear FTL propulsion, which uses a lot of propellant to get up to transition speeds. With the jump drive, we don’t need such capabilities.”

“What would you do with the gained space?” Commander Willard inquired.

“I don’t know. Weapons? Cargo? Expand our pressurized crew space? There’s got to be something we could do with the space we would gain.”

“I’ll run it past the cheng,” Commander Willard said. “Personally, I’d choose more plasma cannons.”

“Me too,” Nathan agreed.

“In fact, we also have unused space in the aft section,” the commander added. He turned back toward the main view screen on the forward bulkhead, switching schematics with his data pad. “Here and here,” he said, highlighting the indicated sections on the ship’s schematics, “on either side, above each outboard engine. Five bays per side, complete with bay doors that open to the outside. All of them can be pressurized as well. They’re accessible via the access tunnel that connects the forward and aft torpedo bays.”

“I remember those,” Nathan realized. “They were put in to accommodate future weapons technologies. Things that existed in the Data Ark, but we didn’t have the infrastructure and technology in place to begin developing them.” Nathan studied the schematics for a moment before continuing. “Mention them to the cheng as well,” he added, “although I doubt we’ll be able to do much with either spaces until after the Karuzara arrives. After all, we’ve got enough to repair as it is, without trying to upgrade anything else right now.”

“I’m sure the lieutenant commander would agree with you, sir,” Commander Willard said.

“I’m sure he would, Commander.”

The XO looked uneasy. “Sir, about my rank. Perhaps I should only be a Lieutenant, or a Lieutenant Commander at the most.”

“You don’t like being a commander?”

“No, sir, it’s not that. It’s that it feels wrong for me to outrank people such as Lieutenant Commander Nash, or Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy, or…”

“You can’t really be a proper XO if you don’t outrank pretty much everyone on board, except for me, of course.”

“I understand that, sir. However, I still feel uncomfortable giving orders to such people. After all, they have been with you so much longer.”

“Get used to it, Commander,” Nathan insisted. “It’s part of getting promoted.”

“Yes, sir,” the commander answered. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Look,” Nathan said, changing his tone, “I know what you’re going through. I felt the same way when I took command. I went from ensign to lieutenant to captain in the course of a week.—I think it was a week.—Anyway, point is, I had the same issues. I imagine most people would.—Except for Cameron. I’m pretty sure she had no trouble at all getting used to ordering others around.—But don’t tell her I said that.”

“No, sir.”

“If it makes you feel any better, neither of the two you spoke of
cares
that you outrank them.” Nathan cocked his head to one side, his left eyebrow shooting up. “Well, Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy didn’t care. Lieutenant Commander Nash? Well, I’d avoid giving her a direct order, at least for a while yet.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Just keep doing your job, Commander,” Nathan told him. “Do it well, and you’ll feel the respect of those you command.”

“Even from Lieutenant Commander Nash?”

“Hey, she got used to Marcus as chief of the boat, didn’t she?”

“She did? When?”

Nathan laughed. “Did you get a chance to review the latest status reports from Karuzara?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yes, sir. I showed the Ghatazhak transport schedules to Lieutenant Telles, and he assures me that they will have the basics in place on Porto Santo by the time the first group of Ghatazhak reinforcements arrive next week.”

“That quickly?”

“Apparently Lieutenant Commander Nash was quite convincing. The locals are being very helpful.”

“The additional food we sent down probably didn’t hurt, either,” Nathan added.

“Yes, sir. Have you sent word of the destruction of Kent back to the Pentaurus cluster?”

“I was about to,” Nathan told him. “I was waiting for confirmation of the platform’s course and speed.”

Commander Willard could see the concerned look on his captain’s face. “Then it is coming to Earth?”

“It appears so,” Nathan answered. “It only did a short FTL hop and then used Proxima to alter its trajectory toward us.”

“Very clever.”

“Yes. Not only did they save themselves some propellant, but had we not been following them, we would have mistakenly assumed they were headed elsewhere.”

“How long?”

“Eighty-two days.”

“Not much time,” the commander observed.

“I don’t intend to wait for them to come to us,” Nathan assured him. “I intend to stop them in open space, long before they get anywhere near Sol.”

“KKVs, sir?”

“If necessary. Commander Dumar assures me they will be delivered well before the platform’s arrival. However, there are still a few other tactics worth trying before we start throwing KKVs at them.”